Banana Chips

Recipe

Recipe

While not everyone likes bananas for those of us that do banana chips are a lightweight and easy to make snack the requires little effort and very few ingredients. I always find that bananas tend to over-ripen very quickly in the summer months so this is a good use for them if you are getting sick of banana bread or smoothies. While this recipe is very simple I find that the addition of the lemon juice to stop the banana from browning gives them a slight sweet and sour taste that I find hard to resist.

This recipe is designed for a food dehydrator however if you don’t own one then you can use a fan forced oven at a very low temperature (55-60 degrees celsius)

Four medium bananas peeled and raw is around 400grams

Four medium bananas-dried and sliced is around 100grams chips

Approximate calories/100grams: 360calories

Ingredients

4 Medium Bananas peeled (100 grams each)

1/2 cup Lemon juice

Preparation Instructions

Peel four (4) medium sized ripe bananas

Cut into 4mm slices

Dip the banana slices into lemon juice to minimise browning. Place on the dehydration rack. Do this away from the heating mechanism to allow any excess lemon juice to drain

Assemble the food dehydrator. I recommend having an empty rack on the bottom to allow for a more even flow of air.

Heat to approximately 55°-60°celsius for around four(4) hours then turn the banana slices over. Take your time to minimise tearing the slices

Heat for a further four(4) hours

Once the banana slices have a leathery to crisp texture (your choice) allow to cool and store in a airtight container in the cupboard.

Four bananas weighing 400grams peeled will dry down to approximately 100grams

Pack in a ziplock back before use

Bananas, lemon juice and a dehydrator. This recipe is about as simple as it gets. I find that bananas always ripen too quickly in summer time and this is a great way to use them

After peeling the bananas cut them into thin slices around 4mm thick

Dip in lemon juice which helps to limit the browning of the banana

Place the bananas directly on the mesh tray ensuring that there is space between each piece so that they are not touching the next one.

I use an Ezidri dehydrator which I’ve had for about five years and while the heat adjustment mechanism has changed with the newer models the size is still the same. Four bananas will pretty much fill two trays.

Bananas after about five hours on medium heat. At this stage turn them over and continue to dry until they have leathery or crop texture (personal preference)

All finished. Allow them to cool and store at room temperature in an airtight container until day for use. I prefer bananas on the leathery-crispy side and the image above was dried for around 11 hours with my dehydrator and the texture was slightly crispy